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NASA NTRS2003

Resource Management for Real-Time Adaptive Agents

Increased autonomy and automation in onboard flight systems offer numerous potential benefits, including cost reduction and greater flexibility. The existence of generic mechanisms for automation is critical for handling unanticipated science events and anomalies where limitations in traditional control software with fixed, predetermined algorithms can mean loss of science data and missed opportunities for observing important terrestrial events. We have developed such a mechanism by adding a Hierarchical Agent-based ReaLTime technology (HART) extension to our Dynamic Resource Management (DRM) middleware. Traditional DRM provides mechanisms to monitor the realtime performance of distributed applications and to move applications among processors to improve real-time performance. In the HART project we have designed and implemented a performance adaptation mechanism to improve reaktime performance. To use this mechanism, applications are developed that can run at various levels of quality. The DRM can choose a setting for the quality level of an application dynamically at run-time in order to manage satellite resource usage more effectively. A groundbased prototype of a satellite system that captures and processes images has also been developed as part of this project to be used as a benchmark for evaluating the resource management framework A significant enhancement of this generic mission-independent framework allows scientists to specify the utility, or "scientific benefit," of science observations under various conditions like cloud cover and compression method. The resource manager then uses these benefit tables to determine in redtime how to set the quality levels for applications to maximize overall system utility as defined by the scientists running the mission. We also show how maintenance functions llke health and safety data can be integrated into the utility framework. Once thls framework has been certified for missions and successfully flight tested it can be reused with little development overhead for other missions. In contrast, current space missions llke Swift manage similar types of resource trade -off completely with the scientific application code itself, and such code must be re-certified and tested for each mission even if a large portion of the code base is shared. This final report discusses some of the major issues motivating this research effort, provides a literature review of the related work, discusses the resource management framework and ground-based satellite system prototype that has been developed, indicates what work is yet to be performed, and provides a list of publications resulting from this work.

Welch, Lonnie↗
NASA NTRS2003

Exploring the Solar System Activities Outline: Hands-On Planetary Science for Formal Education K-14 and Informal Settings

Activities by NASA scientists and teachers focus on integrating Planetary Science activities with existing Earth science, math, and language arts curriculum. The wealth of activities that highlight missions and research pertaining to the exploring the solar system allows educators to choose activities that fit a particular concept or theme within their curriculum. Most of the activities use simple, inexpensive techniques that help students understand the how and why of what scientists are learning about comets, asteroids, meteorites, moons and planets. With these NASA developed activities students experience recent mission information about our solar system such as Mars geology and the search for life using Mars meteorites and robotic data. The Johnson Space Center ARES Education team has compiled a variety of NASA solar system activities to produce an annotated thematic outline useful to classroom educators and informal educators as they teach space science. An important aspect of the outline annotation is that it highlights appropriate science content information and key science and math concepts so educators can easily identify activities that will enhance curriculum development. The outline contains URLs for the activities and NASA educator guides as well as links to NASA mission science and technology. In the informal setting educators can use solar system exploration activities to reinforce learning in association with thematic displays, planetarium programs, youth group gatherings, or community events. Within formal education at the primary level some of the activities are appropriately designed to excite interest and arouse curiosity. Middle school educators will find activities that enhance thematic science and encourage students to think about the scientific process of investigation. Some of the activities offered are appropriate for the upper levels of high school and early college in that they require students to use and analyze data.

Allen, J. S.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Using the Chandra Project to Communicate with Underdeveloped Constituencies

We have instituted a program whose goal is to better communicate astronomy among students selected from an economically underprivileged area of Huntsville, Alabama. To achieve this goal, six local teachers were trained as astronomy teacher resource agents. These teachers were teamed with six scientists; the teams presented materials for 29 teachers, mostly from the Southeastern United States Topics included the electromagnetic spectrum, X-ray optics, gratings and spectroscopy, supernovae (and remnants), black holes, and the tools and techniques to analyze Chandra X-ray data. Beginning in September our teacher-scientist teams, in collaboration with the Huntsville Housting Authority, will present programs to specially selected students at the rate of one or two per month, until April 2004. These young people will be mentored and encouraged to develop a research project. Students, which complete a project by April 2, will be paid for their work.

Adams, M. L.↗
NASA NTRS2003

The Moon Beyond 2002

Over a hundred lunar scientists met in the clear mountain air of the Taos Ski Valley, September 12-14, 2002, to share their discoveries and, most importantly, their questions about the composition, geological evolution, and future exploration of the Moon. The wealth of data from the Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions, coupled with continued study of lunar samples, has led lunar scientists to pose sophisticated questions about the Moon. Because of the Moon's central role in planetary science, answers to these questions will help us understand the other rocky bodies in the Solar System. A fascinating array of missions is planned, including orbiting spacecraft and sample-return missions. Human habitation of the Moon may not be far beyond.

Taylor, G. Jeffrey↗
NASA NTRS2003

The Genesis Mission: An Overview

One of the scientists studying the formation of planets is Don Burnett, principal investigator of the Genesis mission. He designed a NASA project to collect a sample of solar material that may help scientists answer important and puzzling questions. In August 2002, NASA launched the Genesis spacecraft. The spacecraft is not a time machine; it cannot go back to the time of formation of the solar system. What it will do is the next best thing. The Genesis spacecraft will journey toward the sun. It will go to a place outside the Earth's magnetic field where the Earth and sun gravities are balanced. While in orbit, the spacecraft will bathe in solar wind that is flung out from the sun. Solar wind particles are similar to material from which the planets formed, and are atoms, ions, or high-energy particles.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2003

Fun Times with Cosmic Rays

Who would have thought cosmic rays could be so hip? Although discovered 90 years ago on death-defying manned balloon flights hip even by twenty-first-century extremesport standards cosmic rays quickly lost popularity as way-cool telescopes were finding way-too-cool phenomena across the electromagnetic spectrum. Yet cosmic rays are back in vogue, boasting their own set of superlatives. Scientists are tracking them down with new resolve from the Arctic to Antarctica and even on the high western plains of Argentina. Theorists, too, now see cosmic rays as harbingers of funky physics. Cosmic rays are atomic and subatomic particles - the fastest moving bits of matter in the universe and the only sample of matter we have from outside the solar system (with the exception of interstellar dust grains). Lower-energy cosmic rays come from the Sun. Mid-energy particles come from stellar explosions - either spewed directly from the star like shrapnel, or perhaps accelerated to nearly the speed of light by shock waves. The highest-energy cosmic rays, whose unequivocal existence remains one of astronomy's greatest mysteries, clock in at a staggering 10(exp 19) to 10(exp 22) electron volts. This is the energy carried in a baseball pitch; seeing as how there are as many atomic particles in a baseball as there are baseballs in the Moon, that s one powerful toss. No simple stellar explosion could produce them. At a recent conference in Albuquerque, scientists presented the first observational evidence of a possible origin for the highest-energy variety. A team led by Elihu Boldt at NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center found that five of these very rare cosmic rays (there are only a few dozen confirmed events) come from the direction of four 'retired' quasar host galaxies just above the arm of the Big Dipper, all visible with backyard telescopes: NGC 3610, NGC 3613, NGC 4589, and NGC 5322. These galaxies are billions of years past their glory days as the brightest beacons in the universe. Yet they still harbor central, supermassive black holes, which could generate energetic particles if they are spinning.

Wanjek, Christopher↗
NASA NTRS2003

Journey to the Center of a Neutron Star

A neutron star is not a place most would want to visit. This dense remnant of a collapsed star has a magnetic field billions of times stronger than Earth's, enough to shuffle your body's molecules long before you even land. The featureless surface is no fun either. Crushing gravity ensures that the star is a near perfect sphere, compressing all matter so that a sand-grain-sized scoop of neutron star material would weigh as much as a battleship on Earth. At least black holes offer the promise of funky singularity, time warps, and the Odyssean temptation to venture beyond a point of no return. What s a journey to a neutron star good for, one might ask? Well, for starters, it offers the possibility of confirming a theorized state of matter called quark-gluon plasma, which likely existed for a moment after the Big Bang and now might only exist in the superdense interiors of neutron stars. Beneath the neutron star crust, a kilometer-thick plate of crystalline matter, lies the great unknown. The popular theory is that the neutron star interior is made up of a neutron superfluid - a fluid without friction. With the help of two NASA satellites - the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory - scientists are journeying to the center of a neutron star. Matter might be so compressed there that it breaks down into quarks, the building blocks of protons and neutrons, and gluons, the carrier of the strong nuclear force. To dig inside a neutron star, no simple drill bit will do. Scientists gain insight into the interior through events called glitches, a sudden change in the neutron star s precise spin rate. 'Glitches are one of the few ways we have to study the neutron star interior,' says Frank Marshall of NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center, who has used the Rossi Explorer to follow the escapades of the glitchiest of all neutron stars, dubbed the Big Glitcher and known scientifically as PSR J0537-6910.

Wanjek, Christopher↗
NASA NTRS2003

Genesis Solar-Wind Sample Return Mission: The Materials

The Genesis spacecraft has two primary instruments which passively collect solar wind. The first is the collector arrays , a set of panels, each of which can deploy separately to sample the different kinds of solar wind (regimes). The second is the concentrator, an electrostatic mirror which will concentrate ions of mass 4 through mass 25 by about a factor of 20 by focusing them onto a 6 cm diameter target. When not deployed, these instruments fit into a compact canister. After a two year exposure time, the deployed instruments can be folded up, sealed into the canister, and returned to earth for laboratory analysis. Both the collector arrays and the concentrator will contain suites of ultra-high purity target materials, each of which is tailored to enable the analysis of a different family of elements. This abstract is meant to give a brief overview of the Genesis mission, insight into what materials were chosen for flight and why, as well as head s up information as to what will be available to planetary scientist for analysis when the solar-wind samples return to Earth in 2003. Earth. The elemental and isotopic abundances of the solar wind will be analyzed in state-of-the-art laboratories, and a portion of the sample will be archived for the use of future generations of planetary scientists. Technical information about the mission can be found at www.gps.caltech.edu/genesis.

Jurewicz, A. J. G.↗
NASA NTRS2003

NASA's MERBoard: An Interactive Collaborative Workspace Platform

This chapter describes the ongoing process by which a multidisciplinary group at NASA's Ames Research Center is designing and implementing a large interactive work surface called the MERBoard Collaborative Workspace. A MERBoard system involves several distributed, large, touch-enabled, plasma display systems with custom MERBoard software. A centralized server and database back the system. We are continually tuning MERBoard to support over two hundred scientists and engineers during the surface operations of the Mars Exploration Rover Missions. These scientists and engineers come from various disciplines and are working both in small and large groups over a span of space and time. We describe the multidisciplinary, human-centered process by which this h4ERBoard system is being designed, the usage patterns and social interactions that we have observed, and issues we are currently facing.

Trimble, Jay↗
NASA NTRS2004

Narrow Scale Flow and a Weak Field by the Top of Earth's Core: Evidence from Orsted, Magsat and Secular Variation

As Earth's main magnetic field weakens, our magnetic shield against the onslaught of the solar wind thins. And the field strength needed to fend off battering by solar coronal mass ejections is decreasing, just when the delicate complexity of modem, vulnerable, electro-technological systems is increasing at an unprecedented rate. Recently, a working group of distinguished scientist from across the nation has asked NASA's Solid Earth and Natural Hazards program a key question: What are the dynamics of Earth s magnetic field and its interactions with the Earth system? Paleomagnetic studies of crustal rocks magnetized in the geologic past reveal that polarity reversals have occurred many times during Earth s history. Networked super-computer simulations of core field and flow, including effects of gravitational, pressure, rotational Coriolis, magnetic and viscous forces, suggest how this might happen in detail. And space-based measurements of the real, time-varying magnetic field help constrain estimates of the speed and direction of fluid iron flowing near the top of the core and enable tests of some hypotheses about such flow. Now scientists at NASA s Goddard Space Flight Center have developed and applied methods to test the hypotheses of narrow scale flow and of a dynamically weak magnetic field near the top of Earth s core. Using two completely different methods, C. V. Voorhies has shown these hypotheses lead to specific theoretical forms for the "spectrum" of Earth s main magnetic field and the spectrum of its rate of change. Much as solar physicists use a prism to separate sunlight into its spectrum, from long wavelength red to short wavelength blue light, geophysicists use a digital prism, spherical harmonic analysis, to separate the measured geomagnetic field into its spectrum, from long to short wavelength fields. They do this for the rate of change of the field as well.

Voorhies, Coerte V.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Earth Observing System: Global Observations to Study the Earth's Environment

The Earth Observing System (EOS) is a space-based observing system comprised of a series of satellite sensors by which scientists can monitor the Earth, a Data and Information System (EOSDIS) enabling researchers worldwide to access the satellite data, and an interdisciplinary science research program to interpret the satellite data. During the last couple of years, four EOS science missions were launched, representing observations of (i) total solar irradiance, (ii) Earth radiation budget, (iii) land cover & land use change, (iv) ocean processes (vector wind, sea surface temperature, and ocean color), (v) atmospheric processes (aerosol and cloud properties, water vapor, and temperature and moisture profiles), and (vi) tropospheric chemistry. In succeeding years many more satellites will be launched that will contribute immeasurably to our understanding of the Earth's environment. In this presentation I will describe how scientists are using NASA's Earth science data to examine land use and natural hazards, environmental air quality, including: dust storms over the worlds deserts, cloud and radiation properties, sea surface temperature, and winds over the ocean, with a special emphasis on satellite observations available for studying the southern African environment.

King, Michael D.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Native Peoples-Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop: Lessons Learned

The Native Peoples-Native Homelands Climate Change Workshop was held on October 28 through November 01,1998, as part of a series of workshops being held around the U.S. to improve the understanding of the potential consequences of climate variability and change for the Nation. This workshop was specifically designed by Native Peoples to examine the impacts of climate change and extreme weather variability on Native Peoples and Native Homelands from an indigenous cultural and spiritual perspective and to develop recommendations as well as identify potential response actions. The workshop brought together interested Native Peoples, representatives of Tribal governments, traditional elders, Tribal leaders, natural resource managers, Tribal College faculty and students, and climate scientists fiom government agencies and universities. It is clear that Tribal colleges and universities play a unique and critical role in the success of these emerging partnerships for decision-making in addition to the important education function for both Native and non-Native communities such as serving as a culturally-appropriate vehicle for access, analysis, control, and protection of indigenous cultural and intellectual property. During the discussions between scientists and policy-makers from both Native and non-Native communities, a number of important lessons emerged which are key to building more effective partnerships between Native and non-Native communities for collaboration and decision-making for a more sustainable future. This talk summarizes the key issues, recommendations, and lessons learned during this workshop.

Maynard, Nancy G.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Real NASA Inspiration in a Virtual Space

NASA exemplifies the spirit of exploration of new horizons - from flight in earth's skies to missions in space. As we know from our experience as teachers, one of the best ways to motivate students' interest in mathematics, science, technology, and engineering is to allow them to explore the universe through NASA's rich history of air and space exploration and current missions. But how? It's not really practical for large numbers of students to talk to NASA astronauts, researchers, scientists, and engineers in person. NASA offers tools that make it possible for hundreds of students to visit with NASA through videoconferencing. These visits provide a real-world connection to scientists and their research and support the NASA mission statement: To inspire the next generation of explorers ... as only NASA can.

Distance learning↗
NASA NTRS2003

Transition from Research to Operations: Assessing Value of Experimental Forecast Products within the NWSFO Environment

The NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center seeks to accelerate the infusion of NASA Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) observations, data assimilation and modeling research into NWS forecast operations and decision-making. To meet long-term program expectations, it is not sufficient simply to give forecasters sophisticated workstations or new forecast products without fully assessing the ways in which they will be utilized. Close communication must be established between the research and operational communities so that developers have a complete understanding of user needs. In turn, forecasters must obtain a more comprehensive knowledge of the modeling and sensing tools available to them. A major goal of the SPoRT Program is to develop metrics and conduct assessment studies with NWS forecasters to evaluate the impacts and benefits of ESE experimental products on forecast skill. At a glance the task seems relatively straightforward. However, performing assessment of experimental products in an operational environment is demanding. Given the tremendous time constraints placed on NWS forecasters, it is imperative that forecaster input be obtained in a concise unobtrusive manor. Great care must also be taken to ensure that forecasters understand their participation will eventually benefit them and WFO operations in general. Two requirements of the assessment plan developed under the SPoRT activity are that it 1) Can be implemented within the WFO environment; and 2) Provide tangible results for BOTH the research and operational communities. Supplemental numerical quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPF) were chosen as the first experimental SPoRT product to be evaluated during a Pilot Assessment Program conducted 1 May 2003 within the Huntsville AL National Weather Service Forecast Office. Forecast time periods were broken up into six- hour bins ranging from zero to twenty-four hours. Data were made available for display in AWIPS on an operational basis so they could be efficiently incorporated into the forecast process. The methodology used to assess the value of experimental QPFs compared to available operational products is best described as a three-tier approach involving both forecasters and research scientists. Tier-one is a web-based survey completed by duty forecasters on the aviation and public desks. The survey compiles information on how the experimental product was used in the forecast decision making process. Up to 6 responses per twenty-four hours can be compiled during a precipitation event. Tier-two consists of an event post mortem and experimental product assessment performed daily by the NASA/NWS Liaison. Tier-three is a detailed breakdown/analysis of specific events targeted by either the NWS SO0 or SPoRT team members. The task is performed by both NWS and NASA research scientists and may be conducted once every couple of months. The findings from the Pilot Assessment Program will be reported at the meeting.

Lapenta, William M.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Space-based Science Operations Grid Prototype

Grid technology is the up and coming technology that is enabling widely disparate services to be offered to users that is very economical, easy to use and not available on a wide basis. Under the Grid concept disparate organizations generally defined as "virtual organizations" can share services i.e. sharing discipline specific computer applications, required to accomplish the specific scientific and engineering organizational goals and objectives. Grids are emerging as the new technology of the future. Grid technology has been enabled by the evolution of increasingly high speed networking. Without the evolution of high speed networking Grid technology would not have emerged. NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center's (MSFC) Flight Projects Directorate, Ground Systems Department is developing a Space-based Science Operations Grid prototype to provide to scientists and engineers the tools necessary to operate space-based science payloads/experiments and for scientists to conduct public and educational outreach. In addition Grid technology can provide new services not currently available to users. These services include mission voice and video, application sharing, telemetry management and display, payload and experiment commanding, data mining, high order data processing, discipline specific application sharing and data storage, all from a single grid portal. The Prototype will provide most of these services in a first step demonstration of integrated Grid and space-based science operations technologies. It will initially be based on the International Space Station science operational services located at the Payload Operations Integration Center at MSFC, but can be applied to many NASA projects including free flying satellites and future projects. The Prototype will use the Internet2 Abilene Research and Education Network that is currently a 10 Gb backbone network to reach the University of Alabama at Huntsville and several other, as yet unidentified, Space Station based science experimenters. There is an international aspect to the Grid involving the America's Pathway (AMPath) network, the Chilean REUNA Research and Education Network and the University of Chile in Santiago that will further demonstrate how extensive these services can be used. From the user's perspective, the Prototype will provide a single interface and logon to these varied services without the complexity of knowing the where's and how's of each service. There is a separate and deliberate emphasis on security. Security will be addressed by specifically outlining the different approaches and tools used. Grid technology, unlike the Internet, is being designed with security in mind. In addition we will show the locations, configurations and network paths associated with each service and virtual organization. We will discuss the separate virtual organizations that we define for the varied user communities. These will include certain, as yet undetermined, space-based science functions and/or processes and will include specific virtual organizations required for public and educational outreach and science and engineering collaboration. We will also discuss the Grid Prototype performance and the potential for further Grid applications both space-based and ground based projects and processes. In this paper and presentation we will detail each service and how they are integrated using Grid

Bradford, Robert N.↗
NASA NTRS1998

On-board Science Understanding: NASA Ames' Efforts

In the near future NASA intends to explore various regions of our solar system using robotic devices such as rovers, spacecraft, airplanes, and/or balloons. Such platforms will likely carry imaging devices, and a variety of analytical instruments intended to evaluate the chemical and mineralogical nature of the environment(s) that they encounter. Historically, mission operations have involved: (1) return of scientific data from the craft; (2) evaluation of the data by space scientists; (3) recommendations of the scientists regarding future mission activity; (4) commands for achieving these activities being transmitted to the craft; and (5) the activity being undertaken. This cycle is then repeated for the duration of the mission with command opportunities once or perhaps twice per day. In a rapidly changing environment, such as might be encountered by a rover traversing hundreds of meters a day or a spacecraft encountering an asteroid, this historical cycle is not amenable to rapid long range traverses, discovery of novelty, or rapid response to any unexpected situations. In addition to real-time response issues, the nature of imaging and/or spectroscopic devices are such that tremendous data volumes can be acquired, for example during a traverse. However, such data volumes can rapidly exceed on-board memory capabilities prior to the ability to transmit it to Earth. Additionally, the necessary communication band-widths are restrictive enough so that only a small portion of these data can actually be returned to Earth. Such scenarios clearly require the enabling of some crucial decisions to be made on-board by these robotic explorers. These decisions transcend the electromechanical control, health, and navigation issues associated with robotic operations. Instead they focus upon a long term goal of automating scientific discovery based upon data returned by sensors of the robot craft. Such an approach would eventually enable it to understand what is interesting because the data deviates from expectations generated by current theories/models of planetary processes that could have resulted in the observed data. Such interesting data and/or conclusions can then be selectively transmitted to Earth thus reducing memory and communications demands.

Roush, Ted L.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Student Interns Work on Mars

The exceptional imagery and data acquired by the Mars Exploration Rovers since their January 2004 landing have captured the attention of scientists, the public, and students and teachers worldwide. One aspect of particular interest lies with a group of high school teachers and students actively engaged in the Athena Student Interns Program. The Athena Student Interns Program (ASIP) is a joint effort between NASA s Mars Public Engagement Office and the Athena Science Investigation that began in early 1999 as a pilot student-scientist research partnership program associated with the FIDO prototype Mars rover field test . The program is designed to actively engage high school students and their teachers in Mars exploration and scientific inquiry. In ASIP, groups of students and teachers from around the country work with mentors from the mission s Athena Science Team to carry out an aspect of the mission.

Bowman, C. D.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Training Informal Educators Provides Leverage for Space Science Education and Public Outreach

How do we reach the public with the exciting story of Solar System Exploration? How do we encourage girls to think about careers in science, math, engineering and technology? Why should NASA scientists make an effort to reach the public and informal education settings to tell the Solar System Exploration story? These are questions that the Solar System Exploration Forum, a part of the NASA Office of Space Science Education (SSE) and Public Outreach network, has tackled over the past few years. The SSE Forum is a group of education teams and scientists who work to share the excitement of solar system exploration with colleagues, formal educators, and informal educators like museums and youth groups. One major area of the SSE Forum outreach supports the training of Girl Scouts of the USA (GS) leaders and trainers in a suite of activities that reflect NASA missions and science research. Youth groups like Girl Scouts structure their activities as informal education.

Allen, J. S.↗